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Coward Springs Campground Outback review | SA’s Great Travel Planner

Over the past two decades a dedicated couple at Coward Springs has gradually created an oasis in the desert, with a spa bath that no glamping enterprise can compete with.

In the era of $1000-a-night “glamping” and being mollycoddled in the great outdoors, Coward Springs is an excellent $12.50 alternative.

Over the past two decades a dedicated couple at Coward Springs has gradually created an oasis in the desert, with a spa bath that no glamping enterprise can compete with.

Greg Emmett and Prue Coulls established Coward Springs as a camping ground in 1991, but they have never stopped their evolution of a sustainable facility in the desert environment.

To get there you have most likely driven through the Flinders Ranges and left them behind and then passed alongside the southern tip of Lake Eyre, 12 metres below sea level, before heading further up the unsealed Oodnadatta Track.

Coward Springs dates back to the construction of the original Ghan railway, when a bore was put down to help water the steam trains in 1887. At that time, the bore was a gusher, shooting a stream of artesian water many metres into the air.

It quickly eroded the bore casings and started flowing into the desert. Before long there was an oasis, with local cameleers helping by planting cypruses and date palms. Eventually, to protect the artesian basin, the SA Government capped the bore in 1993, and regulated its flow, but it is still more than sufficient to sustain a lush parkland of trees, reeds and sedges, together with the birdlife they attract.

Greg and Prue realised they had a marvellous building material close at hand in the tens of thousands of abandoned hardwood sleepers of the Ghan railway, and that inspired their construction of a spa bath, made entirely out of railway sleepers, at the head of the bore.

When we first camped there, almost 20 years ago, our kids spent hours in the spa, with its powerful streams of mineral, sparkling, slightly sulphurous water shooting in from the sides.

The water has been heated to 29C by its long underground passage through the Great Artesian Basin, so it is relaxing and comfortable even on a cold winter’s night.

And being hundreds of kilometres from any light source, the starry skies of Coward Springs are captivating at night.

Greg and Prue have proved to be innovative and inventive hosts. They have built a series of screened off camp and caravan sites among the mixture of native and exotic trees while protecting and mulching their understoreys. They added fireplaces, constructed composting toilets out of railway sleepers, and these are far more successfully odour and insect-free than any others I have seen, while minimising waste problems in the vast but delicate desert environs.

Cowards Springs camping ground. Picture: Tim Lloyd
Cowards Springs camping ground. Picture: Tim Lloyd

Even better, they have adapted the old outback “donkey” hot water systems, once widely used for shearer’s quarters, for generous showers and washing facilities, also built of railway sleepers.

Their “donkey” consists of a big recycled gas cylinder mounted over a small wood fire and plumbed so that hot water rises to the top of the cylinder and flows to the showerheads.

Their latest addition is the restoration of an old stone railway cottage at the site, converting it into a museum that is full of interesting “finds” and tells the story of this remote outpost.

Aside from Lake Eyre down the road, Coward Springs is only a few kilometres away from two of South Australia’s natural wonders, the mound springs.

These two, The Bubbler and The Blanche Cup, are located in a specially created national park, Wabma Kadarbu, or Snake’s Head, and alone make the trip worthwhile. Mound springs such as these have particular cultural significance for Aboriginal groups in the area.

The mound springs stand out from the desert plain, as large mounds, about five metres high, and perhaps 50 or 100 metres across. Yet they appear to defy the normal laws of gravity, since water bubbles up into a pool at the top of the mound, before running down the side to feed a small patch of reeds, and trees. There are even fish.

The mounds have been formed by the constant evaporation and deposition of the water’s mineral salts over thousands or even millions of years. They rise as high as the water pressure in the Great Artesian Basin can push them, but lower than the surrounding “extinct” mound springs formed before Europeans started exploiting the artesian water resource.

And, like an endless river, the abandoned Ghan railway runs through this country, with its sidings, water towers, and culverts and bridges. It’s worth taking a walk along the old track, with its sleepers, spikes, clamps, and remnants of old fettlers’ camps, still lasting in the dry desert conditions.

After 25 years, Greg Emmett and Prue Coulls have put their freehold property on the market, but hopefully the pleasures of their camping ground will live on under new ownership.

Reviews are unannounced and paid for by SAWeekend.

This review was first published in October 2015 and details updated in March 2021.

  • Oodnadatta Outback Track, Coward Springs
  • (08) 8675 8336
  • cowardsprings.com.au
  • LOCATION Coward Springs, 800km north of Adelaide on the Oodnadatta Track
  • ACCOMMODATION Camping sites for campers, non-powered caravan sites.
  • FACILITIES Natural spa pool at 29C generously fed by the Great Artesian Basin. Sites in among trees and bush, and equipped with a fireplace made of recycled gas bottles, and a seat made of old railway sleepers. State-of-the-art, solar powered composting “long drop” toilets and hot showers and washing facilities powered by “donkey” wood-fired heating. On-site nature walks and a museum.
  • PRICE $15 per adult, children half price. Day visitor fee $2 per person.

Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/lifestyle/travel/coward-springs-campground-outback-review-sas-great-travel-planner/news-story/5119a2b157b170541de8f253806097cc